According to Thomas Lieber, who worked closely with Irwin designing instruments for Garcia and Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, Wolf broke the mold. When it was created, Wolf — neither a Fender nor a Gibson — was the first of its kind.

“The thing that made it different was that it was essentially a long neck Gibson with Fender electronics,” Lieber said. “On previous Allembic guitars Jerry played, the electronics weren’t what he wanted. Doug couldn’t afford those so he rigged up a passive Fender system. And that’s why Jerry loved it. It was like a pair of old jeans.”

Like many of Garcia’s guitars, Wolf was named for the sticker he placed on it, a cartoon wolf, just below the bridge of the instrument. Garcia returned the guitar to Irwin in 1975 for some minor repairs and a refinishing, and Lieber, then an apprentice to Irwin, was just about to peel the sticker off and toss it when Irwin stopped him.

“He grabbed me and told me to wait, while he traced it and explained he wanted to do an inlay of the image,” Lieber said. “When we brought it back to Jerry, he looked down at the guitar a few times and then asked how we saved the decal. Doug told him that we didn’t. It was maybe the happiest I’d ever seen Jerry and it was a great surprise for him. From that moment, the guitar truly became Wolf.”

Just to note Lieber is never mentioned as any kind of contributer to any of Jerry's axes by Doug Irwin, Jerry Garcia or anyone within the GDP. There is nothing ever written or stated by any of them to include Doug. That said, Thomas Lieber himself told me he had no idea about Wolf's rehab and was not involved in it, but now has inserted himself as the guy who actually peeled the original wolf sticker off a Wolf and was going to throw it away! Where has this info been for 43 years? FAKE NEWS!!!

~waldo

Last edited by waldo041 on Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Mike, are you thinking that Tom worked for / apprenticed under Doug (corroborated by Pete Sears) but that he never worked on Wolf? Just want to understand your position.

That is exactly what i am stating and exactly what he told me when he first came onto the scene around 10 years ago. He asked me about Wolf and could not provide any details of it because as he stated he did not do any of the rehab work on Wolf. That story has now changed like so many others of his.

The one story i do believe is that he worked with Doug at some point because he is part of the reason the GDP do not own those guitars. Vouching for Doug in court as being there when the "Cash" payment was made for Tiger! This lost the case for the GDP and awarded Tiger and Wolf to Doug. He got Wolf because they had no check or proof of purchase for Wolf and Doug stated it was paid for in cash as well. Otherwise Wolf should have gone to Alembic since that is what it originally was and still is!

Mike, are you thinking that Tom worked for / apprenticed under Doug (corroborated by Pete Sears) but that he never worked on Wolf? Just want to understand your position.

That is exactly what i am stating and exactly what he told me when he first came onto the scene around 10 years ago. He asked me about Wolf and could not provide any details of it because as he stated he did not do any of the rehab work on Wolf. That story has now changed like so many others of his.

The one story i do believe is that he worked with Doug at some point because he is part of the reason the GDP do not own those guitars. Vouching for Doug in court as being there when the "Cash" payment was made for Tiger! This lost the case for the GDP and awarded Tiger and Wolf to Doug. He got Wolf because they had no check or proof of purchase for Wolf and Doug stated it was paid for in cash as well. Otherwise Wolf should have gone to Alembic since that is what it originally was and still is!

SQ: Can you talk about the Wolf and the different
totems that were used?

DI: It was just stuff that evolved out of it after a while. It
wasn't put on there at first. The Wolf didn't show up on
that instrument 'til about three or four years later.

SQ: That's something he put on the guitar?

DI: No, he asked me to refinish it and he had a little decal on there that was similar to that, and since
I was refinishing it, I knew the decal was going to be gone, so I just redid it as an inlay. When he saw it,
he said" wow, that's really nice, you saved that sticker." I went "no, no, no".